Daniel Grabauskas named executive director of Honolulu rail agency

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation said Friday that Daniel Grabauskas, former general manager for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, has been hired as the rail transit project's new executive director.

The board is scheduled to formally vote on hiring Grabauskas at its next meeting Thursday morning. He will start the job in mid-April if he is approved.

The proposed three-year contract for Grabauskas calls for him to earn an annual base salary of $245,000 with yearly allowances of $36,000 for housing and $6,000 for transportation, HART said in a statement. His contract also calls for up to $35,000 a year in performance bonuses.

"I am truly honored to have been given this opportunity and humbled to be joining this community," Grabauskas said in a statement.

Grabauskas is currently working as the chairman and strategic adviser of the Bronner Center for Transportation Management, a professional services firm focused exclusively on government and the public sector.

According to an April 6, 2009, article on Boston.com, Grabauskas abruptly resigned from his job with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority under pressure. Boston.com reported that the agency's board voted 5-3 to pay him $327,487 to settle the remaining nine months of his contract, including salary, vacation, and sick days.

HART officials said the process of hiring Grabauskas included Chevy Chase, Md.-based search firm Krauthamer & Associates Inc. contacting 150 people and putting advertisements in several mass-transit trade publications that indicated it paid $175,000 to $450,000 a year. The job attracted applicants from as far away as Europe, Canada and the Middle East, HART officials said.

Applicants reportedly included Toru Hamayasu, HART's interim executive director. He will continue in his role until Grabauskas arrives and then continue to work on the project in a senior position, the release said.

The job description made finding a local candidate other than Hamayasu daunting. HART required five years of executive leadership experience, at least, "in a complex operating environment" and at least five years of fixed-guideway system experience.

In a previous PBN story, HART officials said they didn't disclose the finalists' names because applicants wanted to remain anonymous due to concerns about their current employers finding out they applied for the job here.